The First 10 Minutes of Every ‘Transformers’ Movie, Ranked

A movie’s opening minutes are important. They set the tone for the film while also providing vital information that an audience member needs to know. Sometimes it opens with an action scene to hook the audience. Typically, an audience member can tell within the first ten minutes if they will like a movie. The Transformers franchise has an interesting relationship to those first ten minutes. Even when a franchise entry is subpar, it can have an engaging opening that entices the viewer to stick around.

This list isn’t reflective of the individual Transformers movies themselves, as some weaker films are higher than some of the better entries. Yet there is no denying that some of the more poorly received films can have incredible opening scenes, often surpassing the quality of the movies they are attached to.

These are all the Transformers films, ranked by their first ten minutes.

9

‘Transformers: Age of Extinction’ (2014)

Where most Transformers films tend to open with a narration by Optimus Prime or a big action scene, Transformers: Age of Extinction takes a different approach. After a brief prologue showing the fleet of ships above Earth that destroys the dinosaurs with a mysterious weapon, the opening scene of Age of Extinction then cuts to introducing the series’ new lead, the most Bostonian-Texan in Cade Yaegar (Mark Wahlberg), as he goes about his day-to-day work before finding a beat-up truck that fans know is Optimus Prime.

Finally, news coverage clues audiences in on the new franchise status quo, as it is five years after the events of Dark of the Moon, and since the Battle of Chicago, the Transformers are hated by the public, and the CIA is hunting both Autobots and Decepticons alike. Kelsey Grammer’s Harold Attinger says, “The age of the Transformer is over.” While an exciting setup meant to draw viewers’ curiosity, it certainly isn’t as engaging as the rest of the opening scenes on this list. It is a lot of set-up for one of the weakest films in the franchise.

8

‘Transformers: The Last Knight’ (2017)

Transformers: The Last Knight‘s opening scene is baffling, but it is at least fascinating to watch, which gives it the slight edge over Age of Extinction. It begins with the Paramount logo, which features fireballs emerging from underneath it towards the audience as the camera pans up and into the movie. A battle is taking place in “England – The Dark Ages,” with the movie opting not to specify a date. It is then revealed that the battle is being led by King Arthur (really). The film reveals that Merlin, played by Stanley Tucci in a separate role from his Age of Extinction character, has a magical staff that is, in fact, an ancient Transformers artifact given to him by the Transformers who have been living on Earth in secret.

The Last Knight‘s opening is a tonal whiplash from everything else in the franchise. While on the surface a fun homage to the classic episode “A Decepticon Raider in King Arthur’s Court,” the reveal of magic and dragons being tied to the Transformers can’t help but feel like the franchise has run out of ideas. Combine that with a poorly shot battle scene that wants to invoke the likes of Gladiator‘s opening sequence but instead comes off as a history teacher’s worst nightmare, The Last Knight’s opening sequence is a wild swing that only sets up an even wilder (and disappointing) movie.

7

‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen’ (2009)

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen is the worst entry in the franchise, rushed into production before the writers’ strike and filled with plot holes, racist caricatures, and some truly unfunny jokes. However, credit where credit is due, the first ten minutes are easily the best part of the movie (aside from Skids and Mudflap). The movie begins with an exciting tease, revealing early humans’ first encounter with the Transformers, rewriting what audiences knew about their first encounter from the previous movies. Then it cuts to the present day, showing the Autobots working alongside the soldiers from the first film as an organization called N.E.S.T., hunting down Decepticons across the globe with Peter Cullen’s Optimus Prime providing some great expositional narration.

The opening features the introduction of new characters, including Arcee (although the movie does nothing with her), and also fan-favorites Ironhide and Optimus Prime in action. Optimus Prime being dropped from a plane in truck form to transform in mid-air and later jump onto a rampaging massive Decepticon is such a great image. Sadly, though, the movie goes on, and as soon as it cuts to Sam Witwicky’s storyline, it begins to deflate, and the flaws start to show.

6

‘Transformers: Rise of the Beast’ (2023)

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is one of the best entries in the franchise, though it sadly underperformed. It should immediately get the number one spot for best opening in the franchise’s history because it features not one, but two robot gorillas and is a very Transformers-centric opening, as it features the villain Unicorn consuming an entire planet. But for all the great elements of the opening, it loses some points for throwing the audience into the middle of a story they likely have no context for.

It throws viewers into a slightly confusing set-up of animal-based Transformers that even the finished film itself never explains. It introduces a new cast of characters, which should be exciting for the audience, but it is so brief, and other than Optimus Primal, no names are mentioned. It suffers from a frustrating modern storytelling trope, one that the Transformers helped popularize, as it is focuses on a McGuffin that the audience knows nothing about and won’t get into later other than it can go “across space and time.” Transformers: Rise of the Beast has a solid opening, but nothing to write home about within the broader franchise history.

5

‘Transformers One’ (2024)

Transformers One is among the best entries in the franchise, though sadly nobody saw it, likely because it was animated. Transformers One‘s opening sequence accomplishes a lot. It contains a lot of exposition that the audience needs to know about Transformers lore, as it shows the young Orion Pax watching a holotape that recounts the information, but it also informs the character. It quickly establishes Orion Pax, the young bot who will grow up to be the noble leader Optimus Prime, as a bit of an Aladdin-type figure, running away from authorities in a beautifully rendered animated sequence that showcases the vast scope of Cybertron.

It also does a great job quickly establishing the friendship between Orion Pax and D-16, the future Megatron. With the audience knowing that these two will be arch-rivals by the end of the film, the opening sequence does a great job of highlighting their long history together, as well as their own individual personalities, which are far removed from what audiences expect them to be like. Transformers One uses its opening ten minutes to both showcase its stunning animation and establish its characters, laying the groundwork for its Shakespeare-like tragedy.

4

‘Transformers’ (2007)

Michael Bay’s first Transformers movie is a flawed film, but the excitement surrounding it in the summer of 2007 was so great that Paramount Pictures actually bumped up the release date by two days just weeks before opening, as demand was exceptionally high. The movie needed to hook audiences, and in terms of an opening scene, it’s really good. It begins with the booming voice of Peter Cullen as Optimus Prime explaining the film’s McGuffin, the All Spark. With Cullen’s heroic vocals and an operatic score, the stage is set.

It then cuts to a military base where the Decepticon Blackout attacks. The opening action scene sets the tone for the rest of the film, grounding these fantastical characters from an 1980s toyline and cartoon in a real-world setting. The first transformation is teased, partially obscured by the reveal of Blackout, which showcases an intricate design that feels truly alien. With the Decepticon causing a large amount of destruction that the United States military is clearly unprepared to handle, the audience gets a glimpse at the scale of the action these characters can unleash. It is an incredibly entertaining opening scene and, to this day, a high mark in the franchise and Michael Bay’s career.

3

‘Transformers: Dark of the Moon’ (2011)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a rebound from Revenge of the Fallen, but not quite as good as 2007’s Transformers. However, its opening prologue is a highlight of the entire franchise up to that point. Michael Bay’s Transformers films are very interested in conspiracy theories, so with Dark of the Moon, they take on the 1969 moon landing conspiracy. Instead of saying that the moon landing didn’t happen, Dark of the Moon opts to say that the moon landing, and the entire space race with the Soviets, was a race to retrieve a downed Autobot ship on the surface of the moon.

The ship, known as The Ark, belonged to Sentinel Prime, who crashed on the moon, escaping Cybertron with an experimental device that seemingly could have changed the war. Dark of the Moon is the first (and only time) during the Michael Bay films that the actual war of Cybertron is shown in any capacity. But the best part of Dark of the Moon‘s opening is the incredibly edited montage detailing the United States’ journey to the moon, and that when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed, they were actually sent to investigate the downed Autobot ship. It is thrilling, edge-of-your-seat entertainment, without any Transformers, as it merges real-world history with an altered, heightened movie version of events. It feels like its own contained short film, and was so effective that an edited-down version of the scene was the movie’s teaser trailer.

2

‘Bumblebee’ (2018)

After five Transformers movies of mixed to largely negative reviews, Bumblebee was a breath of fresh air, and within minutes, audiences knew they were in for a good time. The film essentially opens with how the 2007 film should have begun, showing the last stand on Cybertron between the Autobots and Decepticons. Bumblebee then lands on Earth and accidentally finds himself in conflict with the United States army, as his crash caused the death of a few soldiers, only for things to escalate when the Decepticon Blitzwing arrives and battles Bumblebee, causing more destruction that serves as a remix of the 2007 film’s opening set-piece.

It isn’t just the classic G1 designs that make Bumblebee‘s opening so great (though that certainly helps). Bumblebee hits the ground running and is filled with forward momentum. It is an action-packed opening that hooks the audience in for what will be a slightly more mellow and laid-back Transformers film for the majority of its runtime. Bumblebee‘s opening ten minutes gave audiences the Transformers movie that they had been dreaming of and failed to get on Michael Bay’s five previous attempts.

1

‘Transformers: The Movie’ (1986)

The first ten minutes of Transformers: The Movie are unbelievable. The movie begins with the villain, Unicorn, attacking and consuming an alien planet filled with sentient robotic creatures. It is a visual marvel to behold, with some surrealist animation that drops the audience into the end of a civilization for a sentient species. If that wasn’t brutal enough, the movie then cuts to the traditional Autobot and Decepticon conflict, now set in the franchise’s future of 2005. Yet this isn’t a traditional episode, as within nine minutes of the movie starting, Megatron and his forces attack an Autobot ship and brutally kill fan favorites Ironhide, Ratchet, Prowl, and Brawn. This is a brief hint at the bloodshed that Transformers: The Movie will unleash on its young audience.

The first thing to note is how stunning the animation looks. Audiences who were used to the stiff and sometimes awkward movement of the television series would have been blown away by the depth of shadows on the characters. The scope of Unicorn is breathtaking, and the detail of his destruction is a stunning achievement in animation that goes widely overlooked. Yet it is the sheer audacity of the opening that makes it the best in the franchise. Even though these are robotic characters that don’t bleed, the sheer brutality of killing off so many characters in what is marketed as a children’s film is shocking. While it was the death of Optimus Prime later in the film that traumatized an entire generation, the sight of characters who used to bounce back from laser blasts now suddenly having the light leave their eyes within the opening few minutes must have sent kids into tears. Even now, removed from the original series, it remains an opening whose sheer shock value heightens the film’s stakes and has influenced the rest of the franchise moving forward.